I was using Siri yesterday to dictate a text, and Apple’s intelligent personal assistant just couldn’t get my message right. Siri thought that my “Motion to Quash” was a request for websites about squash. I was surprised at the number of squash recipes available online, but that wasn’t helping me resolve my issue.
Chandler Law’s Top 10 Tips – Part II
Being involved in a professional liability issue can be one of the most traumatic experiences in an attorney’s career. In my CLE seminar on Risk Management, Legal Ethics, and Professional Liability, we cover many of the things you can do today to avoid these “Houston, we have a problem” situations.
As I mentioned in Part I of this article, these tips were derived from my actual experience defending attorneys against Georgia State Bar complaints and representing plaintiff-clients in professional liability cases.
After extensive review and examination, the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys (ABPLA) has certified Douglas V. Chandler as a legal malpractice specialist. Mr. Chandler is one of five Board Certified legal malpractice attorneys in Georgia.
Chandler Law’s Top 10 Tips – Part I
I co-conduct a statewide for CLE credit seminar on Risk Management, Legal Ethics, and Professional Liability. We cover a lot of ground in two hours, but beyond the lunch, which is served during the seminar, one of the more interactive parts of the discussion is my list of Top 10 Tips for avoiding those “Houston, we have a problem” situations. Based on my experience defending attorneys against Georgia State Bar complaints and representing plaintiff-clients in professional liability cases, I created these tips to help you learn lessons from the mistakes others have already made.
“I didn’t even know that my secretary did it. They can’t blame me!” This was the start of a conversation I had with another attorney about his Georgia Bar complaint.
What if this had been you? You delegate some fairly routine case work to an assistant or paralegal. The assignment is lost or sent on your behalf without your approval. A deadline is missed or a case goes south. Then your client comes after you with a GA Bar grievance or legal malpractice claim.
The CLE seminar, entitled Risk Management, Legal Ethics and Professional Liability, is focused on helping attorneys improve internal and client communications, minimize risk, and avoid potential issues. The first of these recently updated seminars was presented to an audience of 80 attorneys at a recent Northeast Georgia Bar Association meeting, then to a local Bar group in Dalton, Georgia.
I was recently conducting a CLE seminar on Risk Management, Legal Ethics and Professional Liability for a local Bar Association. When we started discussing updates to Georgia Rule of Professional Conduct 1.4 (Communication), I was surprised that less than 20% of participants knew about the recent Rule update.
The Daily Report sought Douglas Chandler's viewpoints for their March 29 article on the Losey v. Prieto legal malpractice case (12EV104260): "Ex-Client Sues Lawyers for $1.3M." Click here to view the full article and Douglas' comments.
Three valuable lessons you can learn from others' mistakes.
I was recently reading an article by Meredith Hobbs in the Atlanta Daily Report entitled, "Failed Real…